Before everyone applauds when a state buys up private land for conservation reasons they need to realize that every time the state,or Federal Government for that matter, buys up private owned land, the counties lose the tax money that private land owners used to pay in property taxes. Eventually, a county can lose so much revenue due to states buying land that they can not provide adequate services for the citizens that still own private land in the county. The only option is to raise taxes on the remaining landowners or cut services even more. This is exactly what is happening in some of Tennessee's poorest counties in the Cumberland Plateau. The state has so much land now that they are talking about having private companies manage some of the parks and other properties. Yet Tennessee continues buying up thousands of acres of land every year. Be careful what you wish for.

To see another example of this go to the following link and read about a similar situation happening in Minnesota.